{"id":502478,"date":"2026-02-25T05:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502478\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T05:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:28:09","slug":"build-them-even-better-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502478\/","title":{"rendered":"build them even better at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giant French lock Emmanuel Meafou, who was raised in Australia, is a key example. He previously said he felt \u201clet down\u201d by a lack of opportunity in Australian rugby<\/a> and elected to stay and declare eligibility for Les Bleus after five years of residency. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 1771997289 getting lots of requests from boys who have gone overseas wanting to come back, which is great,\u201d Cron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to come back and they can see something that\u2019s worthwhile, which is wonderful and I\u2019m communicating with some of the boys who are playing overseas even now, and looking at their footage and trying to help them where I can, and show a bit of love even though they\u2019re playing in France or the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are looking at coming back, that\u2019s even more numbers to have available for selection if we require. It\u2019s the old story, build it and they will come. I think that\u2019s going to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n

After two seasons working alongside Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, Cron would have loved to have pushed on to the 2027 World Cup, but at 71-years-old, he couldn\u2019t commit to the travel demands.<\/p>\n

Cron wanted to stay involved with Australian rugby. Alongside regular phone check-ins with the Wallabies pack, he is excited about laying stronger foundations for the tight five than the ones he inherited in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually said to Joe [Schmidt] last year, if we had the energy \u2013 which we don\u2019t have any more \u2013 if we stuck with these boys through the World Cup, I reckon we\u2019d be really, really competitive and we\u2019re all tracking in the right way,\u201d Cron said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to develop some really good depth and they\u2019re understanding the fitness level and the strength level you need to play international rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we took over, I think there was a bit of a gap with a few of the boys, but now they\u2019re into Super Rugby and are far more ready to get ready for international rugby and they know what\u2019s required.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cron believes the program will take time to bear fruit, but crucially, it will lay a platform for future Wallabies coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is very rarely done … we\u2019re getting these young men, aged between 18 and 23, some will be earlier than that, and after four years of good coaching and good tuition and good practice, they will be probably nearing the peak of their ability,\u201d Cron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you should find is a conveyor belt happening where we will keep producing the tight five…if you want the best result, it will be in five to 10 years time with the Wallaby head coach beating his bloody head on a desk trying to work out who he\u2019s going to pick because he\u2019s got too much choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giant French lock Emmanuel Meafou, who was raised in Australia, is a key example. He previously said he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-502478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}